Animal Area and Fireflies

Hello Everyone!
Thanks for stopping by!  I have to tell you, I am loving this whole blogging thing.  I hope to learn how to upload some of my printables very soon.  Check back again for things like that!
There were two activities that ended up being our favorites today!  The first one is math related.  We have been working on "area" of shapes.  The kids have really caught on to simple area, so I decided to challenge them a bit.  I gave them a piece of one inch grid paper. They had to use the squares to create one of the animals we have been studying.  After a practice sheet, they had to recreate it with markers on a new piece.  When finished, they had to document the area of their animal.  Fantastic job kids!!!  By the look on their faces, I know they were enjoying every minute of it!!   Take a look!!

practicing area with animal shapes

It's a moose, of course!

Cute Coyote!

Sweet Skunk!!

Terrific Turtle!

 Our next favorite thing was learning about fireflies!!!  Fascinating insects!  After reading some of our favorite firefly books and poems, enjoying interaction with a firefly in a jar, we practiced the firefly lifecycle, wrote a list of things that also light up the night sky (sorry I don't have a pic of that) and then worked on a craft connection.  The kids were given a paper jar to cut out...tricky cutting out the inside! :)  The jars were laminated and the film was left in the middle.  We then fingerprinted the wings of fireflies with glow in the dark neon paint. Add a silver sharpie body and voila!! So cute!!  The kids had a ball!! We will hang these from the ceiling!! 

Have you seen these?? Battery operated firefly in a jar!!  LOOOOOOVE IT!!

Click here for your copy! :)

Glowing fireflies in a jar!

Another awesome day in first grade!!!  Thanks for taking a peek!! 

Have a Glowing tomorrow!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Porcupines- animal study

Hello Everyone!
Thanks for stopping by today to take a peek into our wonderfilled world!  Today was porcupine day! We have been studying different kinds of animals and porcupines have always been the kind of animal that seems a little mysterious...with their quills and all!  We had so much fun learning some pretty amazing facts about this curious creature.  Did you know that the quills are really hardened hair? Or that porcupines have three kinds of hair? Did you know they don't really shoot out their quills?

We also had some fun with the little fella and read some poetry and a cute book about hugging and petting porcupines!!  Have you ever wondered about that??? We did some brainstorming about ways to hug or pet that prickly pet!  That turned into a writing lesson and then of course a craft connection!

Our brainstorming visual! "How to hug a porcupine"

"I would give him a bath" " I would put gel on him." "I would give him a card." "I would give him a snack."



Lift up the porcupine to see the writing!

Come back soon!!  We have so much more to show you!
Have a wonderfilled tomorrow!
Joyfully,
Nancy

Fact and Opinion

Hello Everyone!
It is a fact that we were really busy today reading and writing nonfiction!!  It is my opinion that the little fiction/nonfiction activity we did today was my favorite! :)  We have been so busy with understanding what the difference is between fiction and nonfiction,  and learning the features of nonfiction selections, I thought I had better slip a little fact and opinion strategy in our day.  I used this visual to help them understand, and we talked a lot about some of the facts we are learning lately and how they differ from how we feel, think, or believe about something.  The kids were then invited to write either a fact or an opinion about raccoons.If they wanted to write a fact, they had to write it on a blue sticky, opinions went on a pink heart sticky.  The kids did a great job showing the difference...That is my opinion!!! :)

I know, short and sweet today!!  But thanks for stopping by! 

Enjoy this view into our wonderful world!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

solid figures

Hello Everyone!
I wanted to share a quick math activity we did the other day.  We are working on plane and solid figures. When working with solid figures, spheres, cubes, cones, cylinders, rectangular prisms, and pyramids, we were learning about the sides or faces and vertices (corners).  I had some extra heart shaped marshmallows left from Valentines and decides to have the kids construct a pyramid so they could actually manipulate the vertices. Each kiddo got eight toothpicks, 4 small hearts and one large one.  We created the square base of the pyramid first, discovering four vertices. Then we added toothpicks to bring together to form the top vertex. Any time I can add that spontaneous hands on element to help kids "get it," I'm there!!!  Sometimes the unplanned lessons are the most successful!!

I had as much fun with this little project as the kids!!  I hope they got home ok!!  I have a feeling some of them were eaten on the way home!! :)
Stop by again for some more spontaneous learning!!!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Research and Writing

Hello Everyone!
We have been very busy learning about nonfiction books and websites.  We've also been learning about using those nonfiction selections to do research and writing our own reports.  We began our research on raccoons. Using PebbleGo (ask your kiddo to show you all about PebbleGo!) and some books about raccoons (we love the Nature's Children books!), we brainstormed facts on our Raccoon brace map.  Every kiddo contributed to the brainstorming session.  We then worked on the rough draft of our reports. All of our hard work on the writing process paid off!  The kids did a great job.!

The next day I conferenced with each kiddo and we edited the pieces.  Final copies were written and added to a raccoon craft connection project. The kids are so proud of their products!! 
Thanks for stopping by! 
Have a wonder-filled day!
Joyfully!
Nancy

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!!
What a happy place to be on Valentines Day.  First Graders are so full of love every day, but especially on Valentines Day!  Our day started with the kids passing out their treasured and so important Valentines to their friends.  We made these cute Valentine holders the day before.  I have learned that we need something extra large to hold all of the treasures!!  the treasures and messages get bigger and bigger every year! :)

Our learning day was filled with hearts and fun.  We practiced our graphing skills with a conversation heart activity, practiced our ch words on giant chocolate chips, and practiced our sight words with a heart stepping stone game.  I had to get those kiddos up and moving!! :)  OH! We couldn't forget to practice our questioning skills with our "Read to Someone" Valentine book time.

Practicing our questioning skills with Valentines Day themed books!

Then it was time for our Celebration of Friendship!  I couldn't wait to try our a quick fun game I had seen and adapted for first graders, our Valentine Minute to Win It!  Our wonderful room moms got all the supplies for this fun game.  And the kids had a "sweet" time playing. 

click for minute to win it valentine printable

Kiddos enjoyed making headbands and snacking on fruit and pretzel with chocolate fondue!!  How Fancy!! 

Oh! And I couldn't resist snapping a quick pic of the funny monkeys I gave the kids.  The tag says "Stop monkeying around and be my Valentine!"  I think they were a hit!

 A HUGE thank you to our spectacular room moms and the other moms and dads who came to help us celebrate our friendships!!!

Thanks for stopping by! This truly is a wonder and love-filled place to be!!

Take a peek again soon!!!

Joyfully!

Nancy

Fiction and Non Fiction

Hello Everyone!
I am going to be quick today as I have a ton of studying to do for my ESL Certification, and tomorrow is Valentine's Day!  I've got a lot to do to get ready for the festivities and love!!  Our "Friendship Celebration" should be a lot of fun!!
Anyway, today we worked hard on the main differences between fiction and nonfiction books.  We talked about the kinds of pictures, words, elements, and the reason for reading both genres. We made this anchor chart to help us remember.  With all these differences in mind, our next job was to sort through a mound of animal books.  Each kiddo chose several books to look through and deposit into two different groups, fiction and non fiction. They did a perfect job!!!  Way to go guys!!! Now on to using the nonfiction selections to reasearch!!

Thanks for stopping by to take a quick peek into our wonder-filled world!  See you soon!
Now, bring on the chocolate!!

Joyfully,
Nancy

100th day of school

Hello Everyone!
Can you believe it?  We just celebrated the 100th day of our 2011-2012 school year!!  On this day every year I am reminded of all the things I want to do with my VIKs still.  Better get moving!!!
But first lets take time out to truly celebrate this milestone in the year.  Kids were greeted in the morning by a reminder that they were 100 day smarter. You should have seen their eyes as they went through the door! :)
We enjoyed making some 100 day glasses with out third grade book buddies. Cute!! Cute!!
After many other fun classroom activities, it was finally time for our annual schoolwide balloon launch.  Each kiddo at our school is given a balloon with each grade level disignated a certain color of the rainbow! The balloons have tag with our school info.   We all meet outside and as we countdown to 0, we release a beautiful display of color!  This year the temps were chilly and the wind was strong.  We could tell the balloons were going to go far!
After a week, we have already had balloons found in Arkansas and Missouri!  Can't wait to see if anyone finds any of our wonderful orange balloons!!  Happy 100th day everyone!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek into our wonder-filled world!! Check back again soon!
Joyfully,
Nancy